Communication networks permit communication devices, such as personal computers, servers, laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other similar devices, to communicate with one another. Recently, household appliances have begun including micro-controllers and/or microcomputers that allow these appliances to communicate over a communication network, such as the Internet.
Communication over these networks in often goverened by a packetization protocol and a corresponding packet exchange protocol that specifies what the communication devices must or must not do under specific circumstances. These protocols are often defined according to a layered architecture. These protocols are defined under the relavant standards, as applicable to the domains in which the communication devices operate.
Packetization and packet exchange protocols usually require that a communication device involved in data communications transmit a data file as a series of discrete packets. Such packetization is govered by the protocols specified as a part of the transport layer protocols. For example, the stream of one or more packets may be govered by protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and all related protocols, as specified in “Requirements for Internet Hosts—Communication Layers,” RFC1122, ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1122.txt, October 1989. The packets produced in accordance with these protocols are transmitted in accordance with the procedures of the network layer and data link layer protocols.
The packet format specified by the Transmission Control Protocol and the User Datagram Protocol are different. The procedures specified in the Transmisson Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) for processing the information in the headers of these packets and for replying to the packets are different. In the conventional implementations, the procedures in accordance with these protocols are implemented using distinct systems and/or distinct methods.
Some communication devices, such as mini-computers, micro-controllers, and microcomputers, lack sufficient local memory to store the information associated with the procedures in these protocols. Some of these devices lack the memory resources to store the instructions for the distinct processing of distinct packetization protocols. Some of these devices lack the logic circuit resources to perform the distinct processing requirements of these distinct protocols.
Therefore, there exists a need for systems and methods that enable communication devices with limited memory capacity or logic circuitry to communicate over a network with one or more distinct protocols.